Why cannot cast Integer to String in java?

Question

I found some strange exception:

java.lang.ClassCastException: java.lang.Integer 
 cannot be cast to java.lang.String

How it can be possible

Answer 1

Use .toString instead like below:

String myString = myIntegerObject.toString();

Answer 2

You should call myIntegerObject.toString() if you want the string representation.

Answer 3

In your case don't need casting, you need call toString().

Integer i = 33;
String s = i.toString();
//or
s = String.valueOf(i);
//or
s = "" + i;

Casting. How does it work?

Given:

class A {}
class B extends A {}

(A)
  |
(B)

B b = new B(); //no cast
A a = b;  //upcast with no explicit cast
a = (A)b; //upcast with an explicit cast
b = (B)a; //downcast

A and B in the same inheritance tree and we can this:

a = new A();
b = (B)a;  // again downcast. Compiles but fails later, at runtime: java.lang.ClassCastException

The compiler must allow things that might possibly work at runtime. However, if the compiler knows with 100% that the cast couldn't possibly work, compilation will fail.
Given:

class A {}
class B1 extends A {}
class B2 extends A {}

        (A)
      /       \
(B1)       (B2)

B1 b1 = new B1();
B2 b2 = (B2)b1; // B1 can't ever be a B2

Error: Inconvertible types B1 and B2. The compiler knows with 100% that the cast couldn't possibly work. But you can cheat the compiler:

B2 b2 = (B2)(A)b1;

but anyway at runtime:

Exception in thread "main" java.lang.ClassCastException: B1 cannot be cast to B2

in your case:

          (Object)
            /       \
(Integer)       (String)

Integer i = 33;
//String s = (String)i; - compiler error
String s = (String)(Object)i;

at runtime: Exception in thread "main" java.lang.ClassCastException: java.lang.Integer cannot be cast to java.lang.String

Answer 4

Why this is not possible:

Because String and Integer are not in the same Object hierarchy.

      Object
     /      \
    /        \
String     Integer

The casting which you are trying, works only if they are in the same hierarchy, e.g.

      Object
     /
    /
   A
  /
 /
B

In this case, (A) objB or (Object) objB or (Object) objA will work.

Hence as others have mentioned already, to convert an integer to string use:

String.valueOf(integer), or Integer.toString(integer) for primitive,

or

Integer.toString() for the object.

Answer 5

Objects can be converted to a string using the toString() method:

String myString = myIntegerObject.toString();

There is no such rule about casting. For casting to work, the object must actually be of the type you're casting to.